Templeton Prize goes to evolutionist professor

Published: 22 April 2010(GMT+10)

Photo iStockphoto

The 2010 Templeton Prize, currently worth ~US$1.5 million, has been awarded to an
evolutionist professor and former Dominican priest, Francisco J. Ayala. The prize,
which is regularly adjusted so that it exceeds the value of the Nobel Prizes, is
awarded annually by the Templeton Foundation, whose website says: “The Templeton
Prize honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming
life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical
works.”1 So what has
Prof. Ayala done to fulfil this criterion for receiving this award?

After noting that Ayala is an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist, and
Prof. of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, the Templeton
Prize News Release2 says
that he has:

“vigorously defended scientific theory from the influence of religious belief
while also calling for mutual respect between the two”;

“devoted more than 30 years to explaining the difference between science and
faith and asserting how both are undermined when mistakenly confused”;

“served as an expert witness in a pivotal U.S. federal court challenge in
1981 that led to the overturning of an Arkansas law mandating the teaching of creationism
alongside evolution. … Three years after the Arkansas court challenge, Ayala
was asked by the National Academy of Sciences to serve as principal author of Science,
Evolution, and Creationism, a categorical and definitive refutation of
creationism and so-called intelligent design. Follow-up editions were published
in 1999 and 2008.”

It thus appears that Prof. Ayala has been given the award principally for spending
some 30 years of his academic career in opposing creation and creationism.

It thus appears that Templeton has given its award to Prof. Ayala principally because
he has spent some 30 years of his academic career opposing creation and creationism
(and more recently intelligent design), and for promoting evolution. Ayala told
the Los Angeles Times that he believed he was receiving the award for his
scientific work and for the “very important consequence of making people accept
science, and making people accept evolution in particular” (emphasis
added).3

Creation, of course, is the way God says He caused all things to come into being
as recorded in Genesis, while evolution is the atheistic theory that the universe
and everything in it, including life, all formed themselves by themselves.

God removed

When we last looked at the Templeton Prize data, in 2002, (Evangelical
Colleges paid to teach evolution) we noted that the prize was awarded annually
to someone “who has shown originality in advancing ideas and institutions
that deepen the world’s understanding of God and of spiritual life
and service” (emphasis added).4
This year the Templeton website says: “The Prize celebrates no particular
faith tradition or notion of God, but rather the quest for progress in humanity’s
efforts to comprehend the many and diverse manifestations of the Divine.”5 It thus appears that since
2002 ‘God’ has quietly been given the boot by the Templeton Board and
eliminated from their consideration. Of course, even when ‘God’ was
included, it was not the biblical God they had in mind.

Ayala is unwilling to affirm or deny a personal belief in God.

At that time (2002), the Templeton website said: “We hope all religions may
become more dynamic and inspirational”,6
and “Nominations for potential recipients are sought from all nations and
religions of the world”.6 To this end, former judges used by Templeton
have included the Dalai Lama, Prof. Paul Davies, Prince Charles, Monshu Koshin Ohtani
(spiritual leader of one of Japan’s largest Buddhist institutions), and Nikkyo
Niwano (co-founder of the world’s largest Buddhist lay organization, who also
himself received the award in 1979).7

Journalist Sally Lehrman, in an article in Scientific American about Prof.
Ayala, has some very pertinent comments. She says: “But he [Ayala] is unwilling
to affirm or deny a personal belief in God … .”8

Perhaps this is not so surprising in light of the fact that Ayala has been “A
Supporter of NCSE [i.e. the National Centre for Science Education] since its founding”,9 and this organization was
founded by atheists to promote evolution and to combat creationists. In so doing
it has welcomed the support of compromising clergymen, as atheist and militant anti-creationist
NCSE Executive Director Eugenie Scott has said, “I have found that the most
effective allies for evolution are people of the faith community. One clergyman
with a backward collar is worth two biologists at a school board meeting any day!
… What we [such clergy and atheists] have in common is that we want to see
evolution taught in the public schools … ”10

The problem of evil and suffering

One of Ayala’s problems, it seems, is how an alleged God who is loving and
all knowing can allow evil and suffering.8 Ayala’s solution is
to blame evolution. Lehrman wrote: “Natural selection can explain the ruthlessness
of nature, Ayala argues, and remove the ‘evil’—requiring an intentional
act of freewill—from the living world. ‘Darwin solved the problem,’
Ayala concludes.”8

Comment: The problem of evil and suffering in the world is not
solved by embracing Darwinism, but by accepting the biblical record of the Fall
and the subsequent Curse because of sin (Genesis 3). God has the solution. His solution is the Lord
Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who came to this world, was tempted in all points
like we are, yet without sin, died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, and
came back to life to give Eternal Life to all who put their faith and trust in Him.

Other Templeton activity

Lehrman also wrote: “Ayala is again giving his colleagues pause by sitting
on the advisory board of the John Templeton Foundation, which paid out $70 million
in grants last year alone for research and scholarly programs ‘engaging life’s
biggest questions.’”8

This statement refers to the fact that the Templeton Foundation funds courses and
conferences at tertiary institutions around the world that are in line with its
own philosophy and ethos. Over the years, several theological colleges in Australasia,
as well as around the world, have accepted the funding and found that the course
was basically theistic evolution (Evangelical
colleges paid to teach evolution).

Conclusion

There are two major ways being used to undermine the authority of God’s Word,
the Bible, in the world today. One is to seek to exclude and prohibit all teaching
of what the Bible has to say about origins in school and university science classes,
which Prof. Ayala seems to have spent most of his academic life doing. The other
is to try and marry evolution and religion, which it seems the Templeton Foundation
spends millions of dollars doing.

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